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Terrien, Augaitis, and Ching Take Lost Mills Titles

Terrien, Augaitis, and Ching Take Lost Mills Titles

The 2014 Lost Mills Race was the most exciting year in the event’s history, with Eric Terrien, Lina Augaitis and Danny Ching taking big wins in Long Distance and Sprint races.

While the Payette River Games were going off here in the States, the annual Lost Mills Race—the third stop on the SUP Champions Tour—was stealing the show across the pond in Germany. The first day of racing saw Southern California’s Danny Ching and Canada’s Lina Augaitis take the “Fastest Paddler on Earth” sprint races. Ching, a World Champion and first time competitor at Lost Mills, sprinted to the title ahead of Maui’s Connor Baxter, and a fleet of Aussies including Beau O’Brian, Trevor Tunnington and Jake Jensen, who finished second through fifth, respectively. Augaitis, fresh off her three-day Salish Sea Crossing, dug deep to take the victory ahead of a strong field that included Australian Angie Jackson, Slovenia’s Manca Notar, and 2013 Lost Mills Champ Sonni Hönscheid of Canary Islands, who finished second through fourth, respectively.

The second day of racing saw an exciting turn of events as the leading draft train veered off course after a wrong turn. “Fastest Paddler on Earth” Danny Ching led most of the Long Distance until that point, but was unable to make up the lost time to catch 2013 Lost Mills Champ Eric Terrien, who made a break to the finish to repeat event wins. Ching, Connor Baxter, Beau O’Brien, and Gregory Cloisier finished second through fifth, respectively. Chase Kosterlitz reportedly approached the beach finish in fourth, but unfortunately left his paddle at the shoreline when beginning his run to the finish and had to run back to retrieve his paddle, losing two places to end in seventh after Germany’s Stephan Steifenhöfer.